| 30/01/2021 – 18:49 (GMT-4)
The recently identified variant of coronavirus in South Africa reduces the ability of some available vaccines to protect against the disease by up to 50 percent, US experts said.
This information comes from a group of clinical trials with two vaccines, Novavax and Johnson & Johnson, the results of which indicate that their effectiveness in terms of disease protection capacity is considerably reduced compared to the South African version of COVID-19.
The clinical trial in South Africa, where the new variant is widespread, has yielded disastrous results, according to preliminary data released by both companies.
Novavax reported that its vaccine is 50% generally effective in preventing COVID-19 among South Africans; while in the UK it was effective up to 89.3%.
For its part, J&J said a single dose of its coronavirus vaccine was 72% effective in the United States; but in the African country the effectiveness was only 57%.
There, the new variant, known as B 1,351, accounted for 95% of the coronavirus cases reported in the trial.
“It is clear that mutations have a diminishing effect on the effectiveness of vaccines,” said Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.
“We see that we will have problems,” said the expert, for whom the decrease in efficacy rates emphasizes the need to accelerate vaccination efforts before new mutations appear that could be even more dangerous.
“The best way to prevent the evolution of a virus is to prevent its reproduction, and this is done vaccinating people as soon as possiblehe warned.
For his part, Harvard University Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center researcher Dan Barouch said that “now is another pandemic.”
Barouch, who contributed to the development of the J&J vaccine, said there is now a wide variety of new variants circulating around the world, including Brazil, South Africa and even the United States, which are substantially resistant to vaccine-induced antibodies.
Regarding Pfizer, one of the most developed vaccines against COVID-19, the company’s advisor, Albert Bourla, said that there is a “great possibility” that the emerging variants will make it ineffective.
“It’s not the case yet (…), but I think it’s very likely that one day it will happen,” Bourla told the World Economic Forum, wondering if something similar would happen to Pfizer.
Company ModernInstead, he reported last Monday that his vaccine was effective against new coronavirus variants found.
He also said that he intends to start clinical trials of a new improved version of his vaccine against the South African version of COVID-19, as it has been shown to produce a low antibody response in the authorized version of Moderna, although this result is not still verifiable.